This week was always going to be much tougher in my training plan. Not because of the realisation of what I was facing hitting home. Purely the logistics of Christmas week.
After last weeks 39km, I wanted to make sure that I stayed on track as much as possible. If nothing else to make the first weeks of 2020 easier on the legs.
The week started well with some interval training on Monday. I had picked the flattest stretch of road in the area around my in laws. However, in Yorkshire there is always a hill so this definitely ratcheted the work up a little. With legs starting to ache by the end, I was grateful I had pencilled in back to back rest days rather than try and run on Christmas Eve or the big day itself (although I did manage that last year).
The rest also gave me a chance to reflect on why I am raising money for the UK Sepsis Trust. Having lost Pete earlier this year, this would be the first Christmas alone for his wife so my thoughts were obviously with her quite a bit. Watching a message on the UK Sepsis Trust website and the mention of an empty seat at the table brings home why I hope to raise really useful funds for this charity.
As it was, I ended up with a 3rd rest day on Boxing Day as travelling and family left no extra time here either. So, come Friday I was ready to start moving again. I had pencilled in a slightly longer run but after staying up watching a film with my wife, I dropped a couple of miles to pick up a different run off the plan. This was also a bit more of a tempo run so really felt like I was blowing away some of the over indulgence.
Saturday should be parkrun day but unfortunately there were to be no more in 2019 for me. Pocket was cancelled as the course is a mud bath at the minute. They have at least identified a “C” route that will be trialled on New Years Day. Fortunately though, this meant I could pick up my 6 miles I had dropped on Friday. My brother in law wanted to join me and it was great that I was able to help him to a sub 1hr 10km for the first time.
Finally it came to the LSR on Sunday. With a big round trip to see my heavily pregnant sister and family planned, I knew it had to be an early start. Fortunately this early in the training plan, the long runs are only 90mins so this worked out ok. It was nice seeing in the day and it finally felt like I’m getting the swing of these slow pace runs.
Overall for the week I technically only missed a single session which isn’t bad at all considering the Christmas disruption. Just under 45km were logged and I’m still feeling good as we move into week 3, a week that will see us enter 2020 and the year of the Marathon!
- Monday – 3x 1.5miles @ 5:00 km pace (400m recovery) and warm up/cool down – 11.91km
- Tuesday – Christmas Eve – Rest
- Wednesday – Christmas Day – Rest
- Thursday – Boxing Day – Rest
- Friday – 2 miles steady with 1 mile warm up and cool down – 6.29km
- Saturday – 10.07km @ 6:03 pace
- Sunday – 16.00km @ 5:51 pace
- Total – 44.27km
- Overall Total – 83.64km
